Trump Is Threatening Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain. What Happens If He Actually Bombs It?

US President Donald Trump has again threatened to strike one of Iran’s most secretive underground facilities, warning that the United States could hit Pickaxe Mountain “very soon”.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump defended the months-long US military campaign against Iran and said its central objective was to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Trump said any sign of concerning activity at Pickaxe could trigger a US response and claimed American intelligence was closely tracking movement at the site. “We know everybody that’s moving at Pickaxe; we know everybody that’s moving everywhere all over Iran. And if anything goes bad, we hit them; we hit them hard,” he said.

The remarks came days after US forces carried

out another wave of strikes against Iranian military targets. According to US Central Command, the operations targeted facilities linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including air-defence installations, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites.

But Pickaxe Mountain presents a very different challenge. Buried deep beneath a mountain near Iran’s damaged Natanz uranium-enrichment facility, the complex is believed to contain two heavily protected tunnel systems and remains largely inaccessible to outside scrutiny.

What Exactly Is Pickaxe Mountain?

Known in Farsi as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, Pickaxe Mountain is located in Iran’s Isfahan province, about two kilometres from the Natanz uranium-enrichment plant.

Iran has released little information about the underground complex, and inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have never been allowed inside. Much of what is publicly known therefore comes from satellite imagery and intelligence assessments.

Satellite images have shown extensive underground construction at the site since 2020. The work accelerated after an explosion damaged an advanced centrifuge assembly workshop at Natanz that year, following which Tehran announced plans for a larger, more advanced and better-protected underground replacement facility.

The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security estimates that parts of the complex may lie 80 to 100 metres (about 260 to 330 feet) beneath the mountain. If accurate, that would make Pickaxe deeper than many of Iran’s known nuclear sites and considerably harder to damage in an airstrike.

What Is Iran Keeping Inside Pickaxe Mountain?

That remains unclear. The Wall Street Journal reported in June that Israeli intelligence assessed Iran may have transferred thousands of uranium-enrichment centrifuges, components or other sensitive equipment to Pickaxe Mountain after the 12-day US-Israel bombing campaign in June 2025.

Asked about that report, Trump said Iran “may have” moved centrifuges to Pickaxe Mountain, but added that “we don’t have it on record.”

Some analysts also believe the underground complex could eventually be used to support the production or assembly of advanced centrifuges if Iran rebuilds or expands those capabilities.

Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told DW that the strategic importance of Pickaxe Mountain “lies in its resistance to bunker-buster bombs and its proximity to the Natanz nuclear complex.”

“Given Iran’s security considerations, one should expect that future uranium enrichment and even weapon-related activities could eventually be concentrated in a single, heavily protected location,” he said. “Pickaxe Mountain is the most logical candidate for that role.”

Iran has consistently maintained that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes and has denied seeking a nuclear weapon.

Could The US Actually Destroy Pickaxe Mountain?

Bunker-buster bombs are designed to penetrate rock and earth before detonating underground. But Pickaxe presents an additional problem: the exact depth and layout of its tunnels, as well as the location of any sensitive equipment inside them, are not publicly known.

Rather than attempting to destroy the entire underground complex, a strike could seek to collapse tunnel entrances, damage access routes or disable supporting infrastructure, DW reported. That could make the facility difficult or impossible to operate even if its deepest sections remained intact.

Even then, assessing the damage would be difficult. Unlike Natanz or Fordow, where key facilities have been identified over the years, Pickaxe’s internal layout remains unknown. Damage visible above ground would therefore not necessarily reveal what had happened inside the mountain.

What Happens If The US Bombs Pickaxe Mountain?

Even if a US strike fails to destroy Pickaxe Mountain’s deepest chambers, it could still cause significant damage around the complex.

Repeated strikes with deep-penetration bombs could fracture rock layers, destabilise slopes and create underground collapse zones rather than destroy the mountain itself. Seismologists say repeated impacts could generate ground shaking comparable to a small earthquake, potentially triggering rockfalls and landslides around tunnel entrances. Sections above underground chambers could also cave in.

The bigger uncertainty is what lies inside. There is no public evidence that Pickaxe contains an operating nuclear reactor, so a strike would not necessarily produce the kind of radioactive release associated with disasters such as Chornobyl or Fukushima. But if uranium compounds are stored there, explosions could disperse contaminated dust and soil, creating health risks if inhaled or ingested.

A strike could also produce large clouds of dust containing silica, pulverised concrete and other material from underground infrastructure. If fuel, electrical equipment or chemical stores were hit, toxic gases could also be released.

Damage to underground rock formations could alter groundwater flows and, if hazardous material were present, potentially allow contaminants to reach aquifers, while landslides could affect nearby streams and local water quality.

The scale of any such impact would ultimately depend on how extensive the attack is and what is actually stored beneath the mountain.

Would Bombing Pickaxe End The Threat?

Not necessarily. A successful attack could potentially make the facility unusable.

Trump, however, has argued that the wider US military campaign has already succeeded in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. “We’re in five months now. And you know what we did in five months? They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon; that’s what we did,” he said on Friday.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did, you probably wouldn’t be standing here very long,” he added.

For now, Pickaxe Mountain remains one of the least understood and most heavily protected sites linked to Iran’s nuclear programme. If Trump follows through on his threat, the consequences would depend as much on what lies beneath the mountain as on the weapons the US chooses to use.